Don't Trust People On The Internet
by Ciphernetics
Summary: Nothing ever goes according to plan for Dipper. (Part 1 of 'Co-dependence')


Dipper stood up from painting the last symbol and looked around. Everything was ready. He'd triple-checked the runes, placed the candles in a perfect circle, and he had a list of every single incantation he'd need. This was it.

Bill was going down.

Dipper breathed out, clenching his shaking fists.  
Every few nights, without fail, Bill had been visiting him, ever since he'd come back to gravity falls. He would hover around Dipper's dreamscape, irritating him with his idle chatter and a vaguely threatening manner.

Dipper knew what he was doing.

Bill was obviously planning something big, and no doubt evil, and he must have needed something from Dipper to complete his evil plans! Only…

Dipper couldn't quite figure out what. He'd gone through the journal with a fine-tooth comb, but there was nothing more about Bill that would point to any evil plans. But there had been a few pages on restriction runes, and Dipper had formed a plan.

He'd spent days researching all sorts of symbols and rituals from every corner of the internet, using and old boxy computer he found in Stan's store room. He wrote them down, every single one. There was a lot of junk on the internet, but hey, one of these had to work, right? So he'd grouped them into categories by origin and armed himself.

This morning he'd dipped into his pocket money and bought tickets to the longest movie he could find playing in town, and presented them to the rest of the mystery shack, excusing himself by faking sick. He didn't want anyone here in case this all went horribly wrong. If something happened and Mabel ran in… Dipper shook himself out of it. This was gonna work.

If he was right, Bill would be showing up tonight, so it was now or never. If he failed or backed out…. he didn't even want to imagine what Bill would do when he found out what Dipper had tried to do. Dipper shuddered. He took one last moment to listen out for any signs that the rest of the family had come home for any reason.

Okay.

Time to… time to start.

Dipper pulled a cheap lighter from his pocket and knelt in the middle of the circle, lighting the candles one by one. When they were all lit, he placed a small triangular charm in the middle, stood back up and backed out of the circle, standing a few feet away just in case.

Dipper felt his stomach drop suddenly, but he didn't let himself stop now. He'd come this far. He picked up the journal from on top of his pillow and flipped to the pages where he'd written the incantations. He took a deep breath.

"_Triangulum, entangulum. Vene foris dominus mentium. Vene foris videntis omnium!_"

The world stopped.

The air around Dipper seemed to shimmer, and colour faded. A black triangle appeared from nowhere, hovering in the air right above the charm in the centre of the rune circle. It grew larger, tongues of flame flickering at the edges. A white eye appeared and focused on Dipper. He shrank slightly under the gaze, but stood his ground. With a rather anti-climactic 'pop', Bill appeared fully. He waved down at Dipper.

"Hey, Pi-"

"_Potentia liga."_

Almost immediately Bill seemed to shrink a few inches for a split second, before glaring down at Dipper, his whole body glowing red. Blue flame burst from his hands and gathered strength, surrounding Bill like a pyre, but as soon as it reached the edge of the circle it was pushed back.

"What do you think you're doing, kid?" he hissed.

Dipper took a moment to feel a wave of relief that the circle was working. He could almost feel the anger radiating from the dream demon.

"I-" his voice cracked slightly. He cleared his throat and tried again.

"I… you've been visiting me at least once a week since I got back to Gravity falls." Bill just looked at him, the blue flame retracting back into his hands.

"I figured you out, Bill!" Dipper jabbed a finger at Bill, clutching the journal tightly to his chest with the other hand. "You're trying to get my journal, somehow, right?! That's why you've been following me around!"

Bill had, by now, faded back to a glowing yellow. Dipper continued.

"You've been looking for, for, a weakness, or something! Something you can use to blackmail me!"

Bill laughed, fiddling with his bow tie.

"Look, Pine Tree, I know you don't have a lotta reasons to trust me, but believe me; if I wanted to blackmail you, I could." He almost looked like he was smirking. He dropped his voice slightly. "I could ruin your life if I wanted to."

Dipper stepped back slightly.

"But, that's not why I wanted to see you!" Bill continued, voice bright once more.

Dipper narrowed his eyes up at the triangle.

"So… why?" Bill twirled his cane.

"Oh, lots of reasons. Mostly because you're so fun to mess with, Dippingsauce."

Dipper blushed slightly and flipped a few pages of the journal, looking for something. 

"Ah!"

A spell- said to force someone to tell the truth. Dipper chanted the spell triumphantly.

"Okay, Bill, time for me ask a few questions, and you're gonna have to answer honestly!" Bill rolled his eye, but didn't reply.

"Okay, a test question, hm. How bout… What's your real name?"

"Gandalf the yellow." Bill promptly said.

Dipper spluttered, and Bill giggled.

"Nah, I'm just messing with you kid. You really thought that would work?" Dipper frowned.

"I… well, that's not the only one I can try!" He flipped the page, to a different group of spells. He hadn't been able to find any solid definitions of these spells, but the website had promised they were all harmful to demons in one way or another.

He started at the top, reading the first one out loud. Bill's eye widened fractionally. Dipper caught it and felt a wave of victory wash through him.

"Ah hah! That worked, didn't it?"

"No."

Dipper raised an eyebrow at Bill.

"Oh, really? Well, you won't mind if I read the next one, then." Bill was silent, and Dipper raised the journal slightly so he could watch Bills reactions while he read. He started the next line, and Bill reeled back slightly, fists clenched.

"Pine Tree…"' He warned. Dipper grinned and read off another line. And another. Dipper looked up. Bill looked… not angry, exactly, but more… uncomfortable? These spells must be pretty weak. Well, at least he had a lot of them.

He read off one more before Bill made some kind of quiet noise, almost non-existent, like a stifled gasp. Or maybe Dipper had just imagined it. Dipper gave Bill a level gaze.

"You ready to tell me what your evil plan is?" Bill let out some kind of snort and glared back.

"Look, kid, I don't have any evil plans or whatever," He paused. "Right now, least, not regarding you. Anyway! The point is that you're wasting your time, and this isn't hurting anyway, so you should just let me go." Bill crossed his arms. Dipper crossed his right back.

"Well I already know you're lying."

"What? How?" Bill said. Dipper grinned.

"Just a hunch, Gandalf."

"Ah, jeez, that was a joke!"

"I know. It wasn't a very good one, either."

Bill turned round and pouted. "You just don't recognize real humour. Tolkien would have laughed."

"Well Tolkien's not here. Spill." Bill turned back around to fix his eye on Dipper's.

"I'm serious, kid. Nothin' to spill."

Dipper sighed and read out another line of the chant.

Bill visibly shuddered, and Dipper almost felt powerful. He took a deep breath and set again to reading, word after word after word. And with each word, a red tint seemed to bloom in Bill, spreading out from his middle. His eye was closed tightly, and he looked a little pained. Dipper kept going. He finished another line and Oh that was definitely a noise.

Dipper tapped his foot, trying to do something with all his nervous energy. It was actually working! Dipper pines, human, was actually overpowering a demon! Bill opened his eye cautiously. Dipper smirked at him.

"Had enough yet?"

"…keep going." Bill's voice sounded a little strained. Dipper's smile dropped and his eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"I. What?"

Bill didn't reply so, a little put off, Dipper found his place and began reading aloud again, a little slower and a little quieter. Bill hunched over slightly with his fists clenched. He was definitely turning redder. Actually, looking closer, Dipper would have called it more pinkish. Bill let out a quiet groan, and the sound made the back of Dipper's neck prickle. He kept reading, until he noticed Bill's panting. It was getting louder and louder.  
He must be in a lot of pain, but until he spoke up,  
Dipper wasn't going to stop.

No mercy.

Dipper squared his shoulders and kept chanting. Wow, this was a long spell. It seemed a lot shorter when he was copy+pasting it on the computer. Bill's panting almost seemed like whining by now, and his middle was glowing brilliant pink. Dipper turned the page and continued. Bill wasn't looking at him, but something about the way he was shaking slightly made Dipper feel really odd about the whole situation. He'd never really seen Bill in pain, before, and even though this was part of a Dipper's plan, he couldn't help but feel a bit wrong about doing this. Dipper finished the sentence he was on, and Bill let out a loud moan. It sounded almost pained, almost a bit like…

Oh man.

Oh _god._

Dipper dropped the journal and slapped both his hands over his quickly reddening face.

"I-I, oh gosh, I didn't mean, I just-"

"Took you long enough," Bill huffed. His voice was low and husky and Dipper's stomach flipped unpleasantly. "You're pretty persistent. Dumb, but persistent."

Dipper glared out from between his fingers. Bill was staring right at him with an intense gaze. Dipper turned away and ran one of his hands through his hair.

"I-I'm sorry, this is so wrong. I totally didn't mean for this to happen!"

"Yeah, I know, you only meant to hurt me. _This_ is obviously so much worse. Now," Bill blinked. "Keep going."

Dipper stared at him in shock, his face blazing.

"W-what? No! That's really wrong, man!"

Bill drifted right to the edge of the circle and rested his hand against the invisible barrier.

"Listen, Pine Tree. I told you not to do this. But you started this, and now you have to finish it, because if you don't I will get into your head and make sure that the only thing you ever dream of is the worst nightmares you can imagine and then some. So!" His cheery tone was completely at odds with the threatening words and Dipper's throat felt dry.

"Keep. Going."

Dipper shakily crouched down to pick up the journal.

"Yeah, there you go, kid!" Bill intoned. Dipper took a second to curse himself and his stupid ideas, and with a deep breath, he started again. Bill closed his eye and hissed.

"Yessss…"

Dipper ignored him and turned the page. Bill moaned breathily, still leaning on the edge of the barrier.

"Oh man, kid. This is great, I gotta tell ya. I don't know where you found these charms but you sure have a talented mouth." Dipper's face felt like it was on fire.

"Do you really have to do that?" he mumbled.

"Yep," Bill breathed. "You had your turn, now I get to tease you." Dipper bit his lip and held the journal in front of his face, continuing on. Billed hummed and closed his eye.

Dipper's stomach was twisting uncomfortably, squeezing every time Bill moaned louder. Dipper ignored it and kept going. His blood felt like it was racing, and, very suddenly, Dipper became very aware of where it was going in a hurry.

He sucked in a breath and shifted his feet, tripping over a few words. This was crazy. He wasn't getting hard from a stupid triangle moaning! He was just…

It was a natural response, he reasoned. Puberty and everything. It probably didn't mean anything anyway, this kind of thing happened for no reason sometimes, right?

Without realizing, Dipper had reached the end of the page. He turned it over, only to realize the next page was blank. He stuttered to a stop and flipped through, looking for any more. Bill groaned throatily.

"Don't stop, Pine Tree, I'm so, ah- closssse," he hissed the last word, and Dipper could barely see his pupil, it was so thin. Dipper glanced back at the journal.

"I-I can't, there's no more."

Bill moaned a little. "Okay," he said. "Okay. Pine Tree, listen, you have to say my name, and then say 'expletio.' Got that?" Dipper narrowed his eyes.

"Is this a trick? Is it gonna set you free or something?"

"No, just- just say it!" Bill growled. Actually growled. A shock of what felt like electricity went down Dipper's spine, and he nodded.

Clearing his throat, he spoke.

"Bill Cipher, _expletio_!"

The whole room almost seemed to blur, and Bill moaned, loud and broken. He hunched over, fists clenched and shaking while blue fire exploded from them. He tapered off into silence, hovering low above the ground.

Dipper chewed his lip and tried to hold this journal in front of him in the least suspicious way possible, hoping Bill wouldn't notice. After a moment of silence, Bill lazily opened his eye and stared up at the ceiling.

"Oh wow, kid. That was something else." Dipper just looked at his shoes.

"You know what," Bill said, turning to face Dipper. "I'm not even mad that you were trying to hurt me. It's cute that you thought you could, though."

Dipper grimaced.

"Can you just leave now?"

Bill fake-coughed and knocked a fist against the invisible barrier of the circle.

"Oh,' Dipper muttered. "_Libero_."

The candles went out with a sigh and Bill floated over to Dipper, who turned away. He leaned in, hovering right beside Dipper's ear.

"I know you think you're being subtle, but I see everything, kid. Though maybe, if you beg just right, I'll return the favour," He said, tapping the journal Dipper was holding at his crotch. He floated back, and gave a cheery wave.

"Sweet dreams, Pine Tree!"

Just like that, he was gone. Colour bled back into the room, and the brightness of the sun outside made Dipper blink. Tossing the journal on his bed, he wandered downstairs and booted up the old computer. Pulling up the webpage that he'd gotten 'The Spell' (as he'd started thinking of it) from, he clicked the mouse, giving the post a thumbs down. He pushed the chair back, stood up, and left the room.

And then he walked back, sat down, and bookmarked the website.

Just in case.


End file.
